r I shall ever forget--If you are willing to unite
your fate with Mr. Clarke, your mistress gives me leave to assure you she
will stock the farm at her own expense, and we will celebrate the wedding
at Greavesbury Hall"--

By this time the hearts of these grateful lovers had overflowed. Dolly
was sitting on her knees, bathing her lady's hand with her tears, and Mr.
Clarke appeared in the same attitude by Sir Launcelot. The uncle, almost
as affected as the nephew by the generosity of our adventurer, cried
aloud, "I pray God that you and your glorious consort may have smooth
seas and gentle gales whithersoever you are bound; as for my kinsman Tom,
I'll give him a thousand pounds to set him fairly afloat; and if he prove
not a faithful tender to you his benefactor, I hope he will founder in
this world, and be damned in that which is to come." Nothing now was
wanting to the completion of their happiness but the consent of Dolly's
mother at the Black Lion, who they did not suppose could have any
objection to such an advantageous match for her daughter; but in this
particular they were mistaken.

In the meantime they arrived at the village where the knight had
exercised the duties of chivalry; and there he received the gratulation
of Mr. Fillet and the attorney who had offered to bail him before Justice
Gobble. Mutual civilities having passed, they gave him to understand
that Gobble and his wife were turned Methodists. All the rest of the
prisoners whom he had delivered came to testify their gratitude, and were
hospitably entertained. Next day they halted at the Black Lion, where
the good woman was overjoyed to see Dolly so happily preferred; but when
Sir Launcelot unfolded the proposed marriage, she interrupted him with a
scream--"Christ Jesus forbid--marry and amen!--match with her own
brother!"

At this exclamation Dolly fainted; her lover stood with his ears erect,
and his mouth wide open; Crowe stared, while the knight and his lady
expressed equal surprise and concern. When Sir Launcelot entreated Mrs.
Cowslip to explain this mystery, she told him, that about sixteen years
ago, Mr. Clarke, senior, had brought Dolly, then an infant, to her house,
when she and her late husband lived in another part of the country; and
as she had then been lately delivered of a child which did not live,
he hired her as a nurse to the little foundling. He owned she was a
love-begotten babe, and from time to time paid handsomely for